Age checking online

Online retailer The Drinks Shop has introduced software to automatically check the age of potential customers on the electoral register.

The company said the system broke new ground for age verification

in web-based drinks retailing.

As well as checking names and ages against the electoral roll, the system will

check

utility company records to weed out under-age purchasers.

The software

was developed in-house by technical director Matthew Blackstone to integrate with the company's bespoke WinGo software.

That application ≠controls the ≠retailer's order processing, customer relations management, accounting, dispatch, marketing, stock control and site content.

Managing director Tim Francis said: "The development is one of the most important steps in the company's 10-year history.

"Our controls include interfacing automatically with sources such as BT and credit reference agency databases.

"The development and maintenance is a substantial investment for us and we believe that all online drinks retailers and other industries with similar customer age requirements should implement such controls by law," he added.

The Drink Shop claims to be one of the world's biggest online drinks retailers with

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We’ve all had impressed on us the idea that we mustn’t judge a book by its cover. It’s one we tend to repeat at opportune moments, while singularly failing to follow it when buying books, or anything else.